Work-from-home benefits and cheap rent. Major city is now a magnet for Americans

A growing number of Americans are crossing the southern border and making Mexico their new home. CNN's David Culver takes a look at the cause and effect of Americans settling in Mexico City. #CNN #News

60 comments

    1. Expatriate: someone who lives outside of their native country. Immigrant: someone who comes to live permanently in another country…

    2. @LondonStanNow Not at all, I live in Cambodia as an expat (Im from Norway), and there are a lot of African and Afro-Americans here that live her on the same terms as me.

      I would say you become an immigrant the second you move with the intent of becoming a citizen of the country you are moving to. If I as an expat decide to apply for citizenship and stay permanently, I become an immigrant. Skin color not applicable… (country of origin is however relevant to get either status though)

    3. @Alex Daland Most Americans come to live in Mexico permanently (illegally) yet they still call themselves “expats.” It’s ridiculous.

  1. Hardly an even exchange. Immigrants come here in the hopes of a better life, and rarely get one. Then you have American’s giong and basically taking over neighborhoods until the locals are priced out. Kind of like what settlers did to Native American’s.

    1. @John Smithe – Yeaahh, “most Americans will refuse to learn the other language”…. like, all across US, we have to choose English or Espanol at ATM.

    2. Why would the Cartels put a stop to it, American with more extra income to spend on drugs with out the list of the lost from importing across the border?

  2. Maybe Trump was right, we will build the wall and Mexico will pay for it.- to keep us out๐Ÿคฃ

  3. Yep! And itโ€™s happening to us in the US too. We are being pushed out at the end of September and there are 3 or 4 houses for sale, at nearly $1,000,000 each, in a dangerous part of Oakland. So…where are we all supposed to go?
    Thanks Big Tech! ๐Ÿ™„

    1. @RussianTanksAreMadeOfPotatoes Sure, if that comment is made in a bubble of people who have the means and intellect to “simply” get a demandable degree.

    2. @Tesla Mark ikr?!? ๐Ÿคฃ๐Ÿ™„ wtf he must be 75 or has dementia
      Christ 100% out of touch! It isnโ€™t 1985 buddy!!

  4. The aggravating part is not that they just rent 1 apartment, the ones with a higher income take it a step further and rent additional units to place them right away on AirBnB for an extra income. So they quickly take all the new units giving the developers reason to buy more low income house to build more and more high end ones.

    1. Free market, baby. Should’ve gone to college and learned to code or some basic data analytics. You could be working four remote jobs happily having financial security like me.

    2. @GizmoMaltese Sorry, should’ve said that they buy the apartments to do that in most cases.
      And also they make more on AirBnB just like an Hotel makes more on a room per week than an apartment rent per month.
      There are new laws on discussion that would taxate a lot to those who do that. And to protect people from eviction if they have paid rent on time for several years. No protection for squatters like in some places where laws to protect the elderly are abused by young squatters that drag an old person to live with them to use them as a blockade.

    3. @Duke of Crows You know, life wouldn’t hit you in the face if you didn’t make such dumb decisions. I have friends who I used to talk to. Idk how old you are but I’m 25. I’m assuming you’ve been through this age where you no longer talk to the people you hung out with in college because of where they ended up. If someone’s privileged and had everything handed to them, they have no excuse to be a bum.

  5. I lived in Mexico City during the Olympics. Our house we rented was leveled and a new house put in it’s place a year ago. Sad.

    1. It happens, the same way hotels here in Tallahassee, Florida raised their daily rates from $125.00 per night to over $400 per night during a FSU game or FAMU homecoming.

      The same way, businesses around the stadium closed their doors and rent out thier parking lots spaces for $30 to $50 a pop.

    2. That’s what they are doing in Florida. Despite Ocean rise., the homes down in Naples Florida are leveled and Condos put in on or near the rising tides. So much for Resiliency. We can hardly get homeowners insurance, even inland in Florida.

  6. Mexico City is a beautiful place. it does crack me up how ignorant a lot Americans can be thinking every city in Mexico is a border town. Gentrification is global though. Retiree expats have been going to Mexico for a very long time and it’s been fine, younger people doing it in mass and it’s now affecting things. It does help the Mexican economy a lot though.

  7. I live in Mexico city for the last 10 years , Americans do raise the price for locals but it’s not only them , it’s also inflating,, higher costs of living and COVID . But at the same time there are still a lot of Renta signs all over the city, so there are still many options to rent with different prices

  8. Well they move there PARTLY because it’s cheap, but also because the US is insanely expensive – at least in the places worth living.

  9. I moved to Ecuador and see the same pattern; gringos drive up prices and then there’s a local backlash for reasons we can all understand. Wiser gringos and local governments that mitigate impacts, help make it work for everyone.

  10. You know, that’s bullshit!!
    Mexicans can’t come to the US because of immigration crap but Americans can buy the houses and apartments in Mexico to then turn around and overcharge actual people born in Mexico to live in their own country. Airbnbs are preventing folks from having a place to live.
    I think with homelessness in full bloom and winter around the corner, 89% of travel hotels and motels as well as airbnbs should be used to house people temporarily for very low income while being subsidized by the top 1% taxes that they never have to pay. It’s sickening that these apts and rooms stay empty while single mothers with babies and disabled folks and veterans sleep in the streets in the cold๐Ÿ˜ž

    1. @Ms. Nancy Why we need rid of the income tax, and have a flat national sales tax. Everybody pays. No such thing as a non profit. But not so high to inpeed getting needed items.

      Even a 5% tax would take in billions. If you buy a stock, buy a house, a trip to outlets space….5%

      No one tax is completely fare across the board. But this is better than what we have now!

    2. This is the free market. Wtf are you talking about? Also, it’s not the top 1% that doesn’t pay taxes. I’m in the top 1%. It’s the executives whose comp comes primarily from stock options and a minimal base salary which can be fucking ducked by a long term capital gains tax loophole.

    3. People are moving to Mexico to get guaranteed healthcare, because in America the insurance companies search your teeth for gold fillings when you get sick. Lets be frank about it.
      But for those thinking people are making a killing off renting out apartments, I gotta tell you as a small landlord in the U.S., dealing with tenants sucks. Companies like Blackrock may be raking in dough but its a numbers game, for small leasers its a ton of work and endless drama housing people, being on call 24/7 and the takehome pay is feeble at best after all the expense and cleaning up after them.
      I wish I had known that before did all the work to get into it myself. And yes I’m getting out of it as soon as I find another way to pay the bills

  11. I moved to Europe 10 years ago and I have a savings, retirement account and own my home. I don’t have student debt and the cost of my private health insurance is โ‚ฌ150 per month.
    Gee… I’m not moving back to the USA any time soon. Do you blame me?

    1. I’m looking to do the exact same, please share how you did your residency, and which country did you choose to settle in?
      Thank you in advance!

  12. I have a few friends who have moved to Mexico and they love it
    First they bought land and built homes
    They have all been living there for about four years
    They completely love it and no Trump
    Win win

    1. Now that you mention it, if immigrants coming here knew about the big psychopath was gonna turn into, would they still try to find a better life here?

    2. @W1ND General
      I donโ€™t know
      But they bought land in the hills and they are retired and enjoying their lives I know that
      They are really almost ready to never need a store again

  13. I can see this

    The company I work for allows people to be full time work from home these days

    I ran into one person who moved to Tokyo, Japan because he always wanted to live there

    I’ve also got a cousin who works for a company in California, but decided to move back to Iowa. Because as he put it. Even though his company requires that he come into the office once a month it is cheaper for him to live in Iowa and fly to California once a month

  14. Canโ€™t lie I went there in summer 2019 and Iโ€™m from NYC. I stayed for 5 days and honestly didnโ€™t want to leave. The quality of life is amazing in CDMX. This is before COVID-19 now with WFH itโ€™s the perfect storm. You save so much when getting paid in USD living there.
    But that Roma neighborhood literally felt like Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. It kind of threw me off for a bit, so much foreigners was there. I didnโ€™t like it so I left after like 30 mins walking around, I love to immerse myself in Mexican culture. Not to go live and talk with Americans in Mexico. Nahh Iโ€™m good. Learn the native language and give back to the people, itโ€™s their land.

    1. Exactly! When I was in CDMX (La Condesa near Roma Norte) I was speaking Spanish with the locals and getting to know their culture. Everyone treated me really well.

      I recently obtained Temporary Mexican Residency and should I move there, I will rent a modest apartment and live a modest life there. Why leave America and its rat-racey culture and perpetuate it in Mexico???

      Life is for living and not bragging โ€” even if you do have the means due to working remotely and earning US wages.

  15. This sounds familiar to what I’ve experienced here in the US. If there’s a cheap place to live, transplants will come from expensive places and just buy everything up essentially pushing lower income communities out.

    1. 1 Erika Holmstrom Fuk what you saying it here ๐Ÿ˜  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxYhxZVo-3o

      Felicidades, es un buen ejemplo. ๐Ÿ˜ 
      5:25 Se deja ver que hay muy buenos resultados ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ˜ 

      Saludos desde la Cd.. de world ๐ŸŒน๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ’–
      los mortales abian apreciado tan hermosa mujer

    2. i used to go down to the Yucatan a lot. Merida, the capital is lovely, but outside the old town now, the old zoo and gardens are awful. No zoning codes I guess. A lot of Americans live there now and a good number of Yucatecans travel back and forth to Miami for business and pleasure. A lot less air pollution than Mexico City. The Mayans there are great, but things may have changed over the years.

  16. This happened in Liberia, West Africa between 2003 and 2006. As the 17,000-strong UN peacekeeping force moved in to keep the peace, many residents found themselves getting evicted as their $150/month apartments rose in price to $1,250 and, in some cases, $1,500. What landlord could resist this windfall?

    1. 1 Kullie Kennedy Photography Fuk what you saying it here ๐Ÿ˜  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CxYhxZVo-3o

      Felicidades, es un buen ejemplo. ๐Ÿ˜ 
      5:25 Se deja ver que hay muy buenos resultados ๐Ÿ˜ ๐Ÿ˜ 

      Saludos desde la Cd.. de world ๐ŸŒน๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ’–
      los mortales abian apreciado tan hermosa mujer

  17. At 1:08, and same later, they call the guy “US expatriate”… I am sure they will do the same with a Mexican living in the US, call him Mexican Expatriate…
    I have been living in the US for several years, coming from Spain, it never occurred to me to call me expatriate… Only British abroad or americans are so entitled. Just own it, and asume that you are an immigrant as millions around

  18. This trend has been happening in most of LatAm.
    From Mexico, to Panamรก, Costa Rica and Colombia just to name a few.

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